Hard to believe

Collin had fifth grade graduation today. We can't believe it!!!! Seems like we were just walking him to his very first day of kindergarten, Mrs. Stanley's class, best kindergarten teacher ever! Collin has overcome so many hurdles and obstacles these past few years and I know with all my heart he will continue to do so. He teaches us something every day, weather it's about patience, how something that gets so old to other's is like new to him every time, what a gift!!! I know with all of my heart that God has special plans for Collin. We are soooo proud of the young man he is becoming. He has such a big heart for other's especially little kids, it warms our hearts. We try and remind him every day that what matter's most is how you treat other's and to always have a relationship with God, the creator of all things, it's all his, including our precious children.

We also feel very blessed that God has placed 4 sweet young christian ladies in Collin's life, Maggie, Caroline, Morgan and Bethany. They are his best friends and our such a blessing to be around. We know that they will continue to look out for him just as they have the last few years. God is good!!!!! So much to be thankful for. We love you Collin & are so Proud of You!!!

Peonies

I was going to wait and blog after Collin's 5Th grade graduation next Friday but wanted to share something for those of you that may actually be following our journey to adopt. I have been working pt for great friends of ours on the side. These are one of sets of friends that I mention in my first post that had fostered, then fostered to adopt. Last night I went over there to work and Lisa knowing that peonies is my favorite flower went out into her yard cut some & then had 1 of her sweet girls bring me a bouquet of them. To some this may seem like such a small thing but to me it was everything. It's amazing how such a small act of kindness that someone shows you unknown to them can literally just make your day, for me it has made my week. I have been soooo worried about so many things these past few weeks and have really tried to just hand them over to God, but it has been so hard for you see these things are so close to my heart. I am also posting this because you see Lisa, is headed to the airport as I type this post, her mom, as she likes to refer to as her "momma" passed away in January of this year right around Lisa's birthday & Lisa is joining her father and siblings to go through her mommas stuff this weekend. I can't even imagine how terribly hard this will be for her, all of them. This tears at my heart, I know how much my mom means to me and how extremely hard & painful this would be. So if you do follow our blog please say an extra prayer for her and her family. I'm also so thankful that God has placed so many amazing women of God in my life, if you are reading this your one of them, what a blessing!!!!!

Catch Up

Well, I have not posted since Grayson's b-day. Alot has been going on, so much emotionally the last couple of weeks. Plus my 2 boys got home on Sunday Mother's Day from their DC Trip & we have just been playing catch up with one another. They had a great time, the pics are awesome, I will try and share some photos later on. The 3 of us girl's really missed them, but did take advantage of our girl time. The girls and I got up early Mother's Day and went to church for the traditional Mother's Day breakfast, it was awesome, we have some men in our church that can really cook, my dad being 1 of them, he's the best! Our pastor had wanted to show Cooper's slide show on this day and for me to introduce it. Needless to say this is normally not my cup of tea, I really have a hard time speaking in front of alot of people & we had a packed house that day. But I just prayed that God would get me through it and to him be the Glory!!! My focus was not necessarily as much on Cooper but of his mother and the choice that she had to make to give her baby boy up for adoption, a choice that no mother should have to make and that sooo many mother's in Ethiopia & in other 3rd world countries are faced with. TEARS!!!!!! This is completely heartbreaking!!! I asked that our church pray for all of the orphans in the world and their momma's. The love & support and heartfelt comments regarding the momma's out there & the unconditional love they have for their babies & what a selfless act on their behalf made all the anxiety worth it. We are so blessed with an awesome church family, that have seen us through several tough times over the years. As Shelby would say "You guys rock!!"

WE HAVE A COURT DATE. Sue e-mailed me on Tuesday May 11th. Our court date is June 4th, this is the day we will find out if Cooper will become officially our baby boy. Of course for the 5 of us we have felt that he is ours from the moment we saw his picture!!! I can't wait to be able to post his pics and show him off, he's precious! Please pray that all will go well and that we will pass the first time, shockingly enough not all families do. Please pray that our father will continue to keep him safe in his arms until we can bring him home. Please pray that God will work on his little heart to accept us as his family and bond with us quickly, we just hope and pray that he will be as crazy in love with us as we are him. Please pray that Kristy and I will have a safe trip, hopefully if all goes well we will be leaving sometime in July to get him. She and I are so excited for our trip, we get all giddy when we talk about it. I feel so blessed to have her going with me, 1st of all she is world traveler extraordinaire and she is so much fun and such a child (woman) of God, a great friend and to think I use to babysit her, I like to take some credit in what an awesome young woman she has become, hah!!!! Every one's thoughts, prayers and support mean everything to us. Thank you.

Pink, Grayson's favorite color. Today is my baby girls birthday. I can not believe she is 3 today. This day 3 years ago we got the shock of our lives. Grayson was not due until June 15 & I was scheduled for a c-section June 1st. Needless to say someone could not wait to get her, she wanted to surprise all of us and has continued to do so. What's so funny to me is that on the way to the hospital, and even after getting there I was in denial about being in labor I argued with the OB nurse that there is no way I was in labor, that she was mistaken, as if she had no idea what she was talking about, lol! I was a mess, I wanted Timmy to call my mom, my sister and my friend Julie Stanley right then. I look back at our first pictures in the hospital and in the NICU and how small and frail she looked, she had so many wires, monitors and tubes in her little 4 lb 14 oz body. That was a very scary time for us, one of the scariest moments of my life, I recall my faith being shaking at the time, I had always given my worries and concerns to God so easily, this time was much harder for me. I just remember praying daily & at time's more like hourly that God would help her grow stronger with each new day, and of course our God reminded me that he is faithful and answered soooo many prayers during that time. I also can't help but to think if she had been born in another country, a country like Ethiopia, that our happy ending would not have been a happy one. We take sooooo many things for granite here in our country.

Today she is a smart healthy beautiful girl. She keeps all of us entertained. She is soooo funny and so much fun to hang out with. I know that God has special plans for Grayson, I can see her someday trying to save the world, even at 3 she is sooo compassionate, she says the sweetest most heartfelt prayers already. She is also very excited to have a little brother on the way. Grayson and Cooper are the same age and according to his medical exam they are the same size, height and weight. I know that that they will be best friends. What a blessing!!!!! We love you baby Faye, Faye or I guess now I should say big girl Grayson Faye, she's reminded me several times today that she's big now!!!